Paycheck shift

Baker: Qualified OK for July delay

Posted: Tuesday, February 25, 2003

By Associated Press

ATLANTA - Gov. Sonny Perdue's plan to delay state employees' checks by one day in 2004 to help balance the budget without increasing property taxes won qualified approval Monday from the state attorney general.

In a memo to the state Office of Planning and Budget, Attorney General Thurbert Baker said the step can be taken but said caution should be exercised and added that he was expressing ''no view of the policy or business wisdom of the matter.''

To help offset the state's financial problems, Perdue originally planned to scale back a tax relief program designed to let homeowners shield more of the value of their homes from local taxes. That would have resulted in a tax increase for many homeowners.

The idea ran into fierce opposition and Perdue dropped it late last month after announcing he had found other ways to come up with the $200 million in savings he had looked for.

One element of his new plan called for postponing state employee checks due on June 30, 2004 until the next day. The effect is to shift the expense into the next budget year, which begins on July 1.

Some legislators asked whether that was legal. Perdue's budget agency then asked Baker for an opinion.

Baker said in an eight-page memo that there are competing constitutional provisions at issue, but concluded that an argument could be made to allow a pay period which ''straddles'' the end of one fiscal year and the beginning of another.

State legislators, currently in recess for budget talks, are currently working on Perdue's budget plan for the current year, for which he has proposed increases in the tobacco and alcohol taxes. There has been no action so far on those tax proposals.